PASADENA, Calif. — You would never guess by watching Scottish actor Sam Heughan in the hotly
awaited series
Outlander that he is painfully shy.

“I have no interest in the celebrity side or people knowing who I am,” said Heughan, seated in a
Pasadena hotel.

“I think it’s more about the characters you tell. And you can hide behind them. . . . It feels
very odd to have to be yourself. I’d much rather be someone different.”

The same holds true for other roles, he said.

“It happens with each character: You take on board their life to live like they do.”

Heughan (“HEW-uhn”) certainly earned his wish with the mystical Starz series, which premieres
tonight. A married combat nurse in 1945 is suddenly hurled back in time to the 18th century, where
she meets an intrepid warrior, Jamie Fraser, played by Heughan.

“In that time period, people had to grow up fast,” he said. “There were a lot of hard trials. A
man around 40 was an old person. And Jamie’s had the history: He’s been flogged, beaten, a tough
childhood, taught to be disciplined, he got beaten by his father. But it’s just rough justice. So I
think I can bring that side to it. It’s really interesting to see what parts of your life you take
to each character.”

Heughan brought his own trials to the role. His father left the family when Sam was 3. His
mother was a student and worked odd jobs, including a stint as a clog shoemaker, to care for her
two sons. Later, she taught; now, she works in the art of print and papermaking.

Although he spent most of his life without his father, Heughan, 34, was finally able to
re-connect with him before his recent death.

“I didn’t really know him a lot, but I was very lucky. I got to spend some time with him just
before he died,” he said.

The actor visited his father for the last time at a mountain cabin in Canada.

“I walked around,” he explained, “and I saw a model Spitfire airplane, and I’d done a film about
Spitfire pilots called
First Light. That made me realize . . . he’d been following my life from a distance, but
he’d been following it.”

Heughan was fascinated by the plays he saw as a teenager, but that didn’t translate into acting
right away.

“When I’d finished school, I went traveling for two years,” he recalled. “I was 18 and didn’t
know quite where I was going, and I got buses all the way down the west coast to Mexico. I went to
the Grand Canyon, went to Texas, to Vegas. I couldn’t really afford it. I got enough money for
buses, and I had, like, $300 in my pocket. I got to New York and had enough money to check into a
hostel, and I remember I had $20 left.

“In that time traveling, I came to the conclusion I wanted to become an actor. And I was giving
it a go.”

Heughan studied three years at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, where
one tutor told him his first year that he couldn’t act. His second year he was cast as Romeo.